CM

Coyotes and coyote management is a hot topic in Atlantic Canada. This species dispersed naturally into this region in the 1970s landed on the island portion of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1980s. Coyotes and other carnivore species ignite our imaginations and can polarize our beliefs, attitudes and preferences of acceptable management practices. The fact is that coyotes are here to stay so the question really is how do we learn to coexist with this dynamic and adaptable species? Education programs promoting understanding and safety measures when encountering animals is one of the main methods to advocate coexistence. Carly Spoanrski, a geography PhD student (ABD) supervised by Dr. Alistair Bath (MUN) and Dr. Jerry Vaske (CSU), and Dr. TA Loeffler, from the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at MUN, designed an experiential coyote education program called Sharing Space: Living with Coyotes. Sharing Space was created to target attitudes, risk perceptions and preventative measures that would enable people to feel more comfortable in situations where coyotes are present. The research was conducted near Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada (CBHNPC), where a coyote caused a human fatality in 2009. Based on previous research on human-coyote interactions in the park, they explored the effects of an experience-based coyote education program on people’s (a) attitudes toward, (b) fear of, (c) likelihood of, and (d) control over coming into contact with coyotes. A pre-post-test comparison this past Fall (2013) was conducted during 20 public education sessions in local communities. The experiential education approach to wildlife safety and coexistence communication had a significant positive effect on people’s attitudes and significantly decreased their sense of fear toward coyotes. The program also significantly decreased their sense of likelihood of incident and significantly increased their sense of control over coming into contact with coyotes in their yard and in the park. Effective experiential education programming helps ensure that appropriate messages are getting through to the target audiences. 

You can hear an interview with Carly on CBC here: 

http://www.cbc.ca/centralmorning/episodes/2014/02/19/learning-to-live-with-the-newfoundland-coyote/